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alphadogg writes "A pair of brazen crooks punched another hole in the lax JFK security when they stole a trove of new Apple iPad minis — worth $1.5 million — from the same cargo building that was the site of the 1978 Lufthansa heist featured in GoodFellas, according to the New York Post. The crooks struck shortly before midnight on Monday and used one of the airport's own forklifts to load two pallets of the tablet computers into a truck, according to law-enforcement sources. It's been a crazy year for iPad/iPhone thefts in New York City and elsewhere."

Yep Serial number is engrained in it. And they can track who actually has it by the IP of the host machine when it connects to iTunes. Idiot buys new hardware nowadays. If people track the serial numbers of your hardware and report it to them they can disable it and potentially find it. Guaranteed they will be this time.

Yep Serial number is engrained in it. And they can track who actually has it by the IP of the host machine when it connects to iTunes.

No, No they cannot. They can figure out who has it if someone logs into iTunes, but an IP does not identify a person.

If people track the serial numbers of your hardware and report it to them they can disable it and potentially find it. Guaranteed they will be this time.

What people are tracking and reporting serials? and disabling and finding the device are pretty mutually exclusive.
As others have pointed out, Apple will likely prefer making money from app sales on these devices, while some insurance company covers the monetary loss of the hardware.

What people are tracking and reporting serials? and disabling and finding the device are pretty mutually exclusive. As others have pointed out, Apple will likely prefer making money from app sales on these devices, while some insurance company covers the monetary loss of the hardware.

Apple is. If you buy an Apple device (or anything electronic, really), take a look on checkout - you'll find for MOST stuff, the serial number gets scanned. This is not just for the store - the store's backend often reports the

What they can do is blame terrorists (It happened at an airport, so it must be terrorists) and then ask for a law that enables police to ask anybody to identify themselves and hand over your phone for inspection.

That said, the serial numbers are most definitely known by the people who owned the lot. When one of those appears on the market they will be instantly able to tell it's one of that lot. So also no warranty or anything any more.

Which really sucks for the quite many unknowing individuals buying one of these.

They are hit directly, but not like you think. Firstly, someone is now out a few boxes of iPads, so they have to be replaced. More money for Apple. Also, assuming these iPads get sold and the new "owners" start buying apps, there are now even more app sales. Even more money for Apple.

It might be in the insurers interest to brick these stolen devices and make them unusable, but it's not in Apples interest.

The poor shmuck who buys it off ebay would still be buying stolen property. Sucks to be him (or her), but it shouldn't matter at all if they will be hurt. Buyers don't have many protections against the risk of purchasing stolen goods other than the ability to rightfully sue who they bought it from, even if the goods were sold "as-is". That a buyer didn't know something was stolen before buying it entitles them to exactly zip.

That was my first thought, that it was an inside job or serious help and an inside job. And to be honest you're not off on believing it either, there's an old bit in criminology where 70-80% of your theft comes from internal sources. Of that 70-80%, 40-50% of those people will steal regardless of whether or not they're going to get caught.

Seriously the entire organization needs to be launched into the sun, it's the only way to be sure.

Actually, these are actually the coldest part. The purpose of the small baggy is to keep the marbles away from the body heat, because they produce more and better cream when slightly cooler than the body.

TSA has nothing to do with freight, they are responsible for the safety of the travelling public. US customs handles freight shipments into and out of the country. But I doubt it was them. Most of the freight comes into warehouses located on the outskirts of the airport off the Nassau expressway at the end of Rockaway blvd. I lived 5 minuted from JFK and know numerous people who worked in and around JFK, luggage handlers, truck drivers, warehouse workers, customs agent, freight company managers etc.

The best insight into freight theft came from a retired truck driver I know. Basically nearly all of the theft is committed by employees, managers and owners of the cargo companies. There are hijackings and sometimes a trailer is stolen but those are few and far between. The stories he told me (he was part of the theft problem, he wasn't ashamed about it) were often simple and mundane.

Stealing HP computers bound for Israel? Open the boxes, take computers out, replace with rocks and deliver to airport. Unhappy Jewish person gets a box of rocks.

How to steal 10 Playstation 2's (on launch day no less) bound for Best Buy's distribution center? Freight company stupidly hands him security seal to put on trailer door, he puts on seal but doesn't let it lock, freight employee is fooled and signs off. Stop truck remove a bunch of PS2's put seal back on trailer and actually let it lock. Best Buy stumped that PS2's were stolen en-route when seal was locked and signed off. They search trailer for holes or tampering but none found. Gets away with it and hocks PS2's for $800 each.

Steal designer cloths? Many college kids get part time jobs at clothing stores, usually lazy or ignorant of shipments. He steals 2 boxes from a shipment of 20 boxes. Clueless college kid receives 18 boxes, doesn't count them and signs for 20 boxes.

The list could go on but those were the stories I remember. And it wasn't only him but many others who stole: warehouse workers, truck drivers, managers, bosses/owners. You name it, they stole it. So no doubt it was an inside job.

In high school, one summer, I worked at a small department store. Seemed like more stuff walked out the back then out past the registers. Funny thing was, the manager would tell us (stock room) he was having stuff delivered for him personally and at end of day, would bring his truck around and decide what was his delivery. At end of month, he'd get upset at shrinkage and change procedures and such. Don't know if he realized a lot of the stock guys, including the manager, were also walking stuff out the back

They steal 1.5 mil worth of hardware, top of the shelf stuff? How are they going to sell it? In a year, hell, half a year, their value will go down by half. Soon after, another version will appear.

Of all the stuff that passes through an airport, THAT's what they stole? The police have it easy, people who worked in that area the past three days and the past 5 years, then reduce that batch by seeing who the idiots are.

Of course, if it's the TSA who probably have access everywhere, it will blow into an enormous scandal.

Well, I had to take some WAGs, but based on this image: http://assets.ilounge.com/images/uploads/ipadminifr2.jpg [ilounge.com] and the stated technical dimensions of the ipad mini of 7.8 x 5.3 x.28 inches, I'm guesstimating a packaging dimension of 8 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches. Assuming an ISO 40 x 48 inch pallet, and a stack height of 48 inches (and without running the math for an optimal stacking solution), I make it as each layer being 5 (40/8) x 8 (48/5.5) = 40 units, with 38 layers, for a total of 1520 units per pallet.

Assuming that every one of them was the base model at $329, that would be just over a million dollars (1,000,160) for the two pallets, for the top of the line at $659, that's just over two million dollars (2,003,360).

It's probably a mix of models, and obviously my WAGs are going to be off some, but really, 1.5 million for 2 pallets isn't a wholly unreasonable number.

I'm sorry, I forgot to address the weight issue. Per the Apple store, the weight ranges from 308-312g depending on model, and per their environmental report (http://images.apple.com/environment/reports/docs/iPadmini_PER_oct2012.pdf), the packaging weighs in at 333g, I couldn't easily find any numbers for the charger and cord etc, but I'm just going to go hog wild and round the whole thing up from 645g to 750g to cover them. So 1520*750 = 1,140,000g or 1,140kg or 2,513 lbs.

Toyota's bottom of the line forklift (http://www.toyotaforklift.com/product/InternalCombustionCushionTireLiftTrucks/8seriesic.aspx) has a rated capacity of 3,000 lbs.)

I picked it up at Target two days ago. No forklift, inside guy or fencing operation required.

First Impressions

I've owned an original iPad, the iPad 2 and the 3rd generation. I actually switch off between the two and the three regularly. The three has a better screen and processor, but the two is noticeably lighter and it makes a big difference if you're standing/walking while holding it wi

Probably not, unless these were packaged for the eventual end retail location. If these were destined for a distribution point they would be large boxes of identical units. Back-end warehouse operation is very inefficient if similar items are randomly mixed.

I just saw Goodfellas for the first time two nights ago. As I was reading the first sentence in the headline I was thinking to myself 'Hey just like in Goodfellas' . I have nothing else to add to the discussion (other than you'd think they'd have better security 40 years later), I just thought it was a really weird coincidence.

At $500 each, $1.5M is only 3000 devices. An extra 3000 iPads on the "second-hand" market is not going to have significant effect over the average selling price, and unless you personally know one of the thieves, it seems unlikely you'll be able to pick up one for a particularly low price.

That would take some time to get rid of that many iPad mini's via a back of a van. Likely they have a buyer(s) possibly overseas that's willing to take them as we found on Reddit AMA there are a few countries where Apple cannot sell except through certain middleman channels. I just don't see two guys selling a current version at a gas station/eBay and being able to move all of those without help (in sales).

Although I do know a bunch of CEO's who would love to save handing out bonuses this year and will

Wait a minute...We gotta strip search grandmas and children before they get on a plane, but someone can roll a truck into the airport containing *anything* and just roll out again with NO SECURITY?

Then there's the incident with the Jet-skier who ran out of gas and washed ashore at JFK, hopped over a fence and then was able to walk through the airport and wasn't detained until *he* alerted security???

Seriously, next time the terrorists attack, it won't be vai the normal vector of waiting online to go through

So, I've just figured out the business model for Quibids dot com. No wonder they can advertise on TV that they are selling Macbooks for $67, and iPads for $19 -- and I sat there thinking, "how the hell do they make money doing that?"... Well, now I know.

Assuming that they end up in a country over which a US court has jurisdiction and don't just, for example, get exported to some out-of-the-way country that would kill for the latest tech and aren't too bothered about whether Apple "supports" their hardware or not.

Wouldn't be surprised if those devices weren't already out in the wild somewhere, in some other country, and though you can block them from going on iTunes, etc. you can't stop them being hacked / used for other things. Plus, the criminals would a

Assuming that they end up in a country over which a US court has jurisdiction and don't just, for example, get exported to some out-of-the-way country that would kill for the latest tech and aren't too bothered about whether Apple "supports" their hardware or not.

Mere possession of stolen property will not land you in any trouble at all whenever you have proof that you acquired it from somebody else, and did not steal it yourself. A receipt of sale is generally going to be adequate in this case.

That will not entitle you to keep the stolen property, however. A buyer, regardless of innocence, must surrender stolen property to the authorities at their own expense. The only thing a buyer gets out of it is the ability to rightfully sue the party they purchased it f